What an odd comment. Of course players don't score at a ppg as rookie pros. It's a tough transition, the same way 16 year olds don't light it up as rookies in the WHL.

Pitlick's offense didn't translate, but there's still a lot of positives in his game and he's still developing. Both him and Hamilton have had their fair share of injury issues too.
Ewanyk never really showed much in terms of offense in the WHL. Even then, he's scoring at a higher rate now then he did in his first WHL season...
Kessy scored a bit, but even then his numbers were limited, he's a bottom six player who plays physically and drops the gloves. If you want to judge his scoring, wait till he's played more than half a pro season.
Lander is almost a PPG player in the AHL right now, development takes time.
Marincin scored 30 points as a rookie dman, that's really impressive. That's the similar numbers as first rounders like Beaulieu, Oleksiak, and Gormley. Gernat is on pace for similar numbers.

And which one of these are projected to be anything more than a 4th liner \ 3rd pairing Dman?
Moroz, Chase and Marincin will be asked to simplify their game and become good checkers\energy line players ala Pitlick. PPG pace in CHL or even in AHL is not a big feat. JF Jacques and MA Pouliot did that regularly. Lander can score all he wants in AHL but he isnt getting a sniff at top 6.. Same with guys like Horak and Hamilton

And which one of these are projected to be anything more than a 4th liner \ 3rd pairing Dman?
Moroz, Chase and Marincin will be asked to simplify their game and become good checkers\energy line players ala Pitlick. PPG pace in CHL or even in AHL is not a big feat. JF Jacques and MA Pouliot did that regularly. Lander can score all he wants in AHL but he isnt getting a sniff at top 6.. Same with guys like Horak and Hamilton

Why is that a problem? We need actual depth players and a wider range of skills.

You think that watching the Oilers would give you some perspective on the benefit of having good bottom six players. Not just a roster full of rejected top 6 skilled guys. LA fans aren't complaining that Jordan Nolan won't be a top six player. They evaluate him based on his contribution to the team.

Terms like 'projected' and 'upside' (which you didn't use, but I feel similar about) have always bugged me. They're thrown around like they have some sort of certainty or meaning. But frankly they are just guesses and often based on little more than draft ranking, stats, and superficial skills.

David Clarkson was scoring at a similar pace as Moroz is now, but he grew and developed as a player each year. That's all you can ask of a player.

This is HF's talent anaylsis of Clarkson from 2007

Quote:

Clarkson is a good skater, with nice hands around the net and good on ice vision. He plays with an edge to his game and has a penchant for irritating the opposition and throwing them off their game. He appears to be a shift disturber type. He is very strong in front of the net and is not afraid to play physically and drop his gloves.

That sounds like Moroz now. Will Moroz turn into Clarkson? Probably not, but he's improved each year and is rounding out his skill set. That is something to be excited about. Will Moroz be asked to simplify his game? No, he already plays a very simple north-south/board battle/drive the net style of game. Will his game be different once he goes pro? Hopefully. All players need to change and adapt, that's how they get better, that's how they become complete players.

This team needs player with size and grit and I look at our prospects that is what I see. I don't see prospects that are going to be top 6 players but bottom 6 players with size and give some nastiness when they play.

That is exactly what this team needs but they are still 3 yrs away until they start to by NHL ready. Pitlick will probably be the first making the team next year.

Funny how that happens any time someone plays with Petry... It's almost like he elevates the play of those with him

Thank you. I'm getting sick of fans and media constantly dumping on him. He improves every d mans 5v5 shot rates who is paired with him except for n Schultz(who is just bad). People can rightfully dump on our d as a group but petry is far from the problem.

Thank you. I'm getting sick of fans and media constantly dumping on him. He improves every d mans 5v5 shot rates who is paired with him except for n Schultz(who is just bad). People can rightfully dump on our d as a group but petry is far from the problem.

Yep. He's not without faults, but he's still by far our best dman. He was great again tonight

Yep. He's not without faults, but he's still by far our best dman. He was great again tonight

Petry has been brutal this season and i thought he was actually underrated in the offseason (while i thought Smid was overrated) so i have no bias against the player. He hasn't been any better than Ference or N.Schultz IMO.
He has been a turnover machine, out of position often and weak on the boards, just weak and uninspiring play all around.

Maybe we should take this debate to another thread since this is cluttering up the prospects thread.

I believe Moroz is the PWF the Oilers been looking for as well as Khraira and Chase. Still believe in Marco Roy too. That's a good bottom six right there and you can add Pitlick too

Moroz - Chase - Roy
Khraira - Lander - Pitlick

I'd much rather go out and sign a Boyd Gordon type player or two to actually show these kids how it's done though. Otherwise they'll just sink like the rest of our prospects. We have a lot of potentially good bottom 6 forwards, but not all of them are going to pan out, lets not count our chickens before they hatch.

Moroz is just the flavor of the year and will be burried in the AHL with the rest of them.

Unfortunately this is too true. With our current forward prospects I bet 1 will turn into an abv abg NHL 3rd liner, 1 to a 4 th liner, and 1 to a ahl/ NHL tweener (lander type). Who will go where I don't know.

This may be a bit early, but I was wondering what the scoop is on college free agents was this summer. So I did a bit of digging:

Trevor van Riemsdyk, James' brother, is a dman and putting up great numbers for UNH and was first team All American and first team Hockey East All Star last year.

Greg Carey is second in the NCAA in scoring with 14G 23A and 37A in 20 GP. He's actually set the OJHL scoring record a few years ago with 72 goals in 48 games.

Goalie Ryan McKay put up a ridiculous .946 SV% for the Redhawks last year and is a former USHL champ.

I look forward to this time of year as well. In the past, we always managed to secure something from the college free agent pool.

Methinks this won't happen this year, because the Oilers' reputation as an up-and-coming team with good playing opportunities has been destroyed.

Let's think about it people. The money for these guys is going to be the same everywhere. Given this, if you were an agent for these players, why would you put them on a gong show team coached by Dallas Eakins and Buchberger, and managed by incompetents like Lowe and MacTavish? Our AHL team - which was also formerly competitive - is well out of the playoffs.

The only reason I can think of is that it would be extremely easy to crack the roster, but is that a good thing when your client would be totally overwhelmed out there and facing 40-50 shots a night with no D support (in the case of the goaltender)?